Gods work – TGN https://tgnghana.org United For The Gospel Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:39:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://tgnghana.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cropped-TGN-logo-1-32x32.png Gods work – TGN https://tgnghana.org 32 32 Where Do I Fit in God’s Big Picture? (Part 1) https://tgnghana.org/where-do-i-fit-in-gods-big-picture-part-1/ https://tgnghana.org/where-do-i-fit-in-gods-big-picture-part-1/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2023 06:08:20 +0000 https://tgnghana.org/?p=6664 The story is told of a man who on his hospital bed, called his wife and three children to his bedside to give them his last wishes. “To you, my darling wife, I leave that big hotel on Kairaba Road (imagine a 13-floor hotel)”. The wife burst into uncontrollable tears. Turning to his eldest son, […]

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The story is told of a man who on his hospital bed, called his wife and three children to his bedside to give them his last wishes. “To you, my darling wife, I leave that big hotel on Kairaba Road (imagine a 13-floor hotel)”. The wife burst into uncontrollable tears. Turning to his eldest son, he said, “to you, my son, I leave the hospital in Kotu” (imagine the size of a busy tertiary referral hospital like Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital). His son wailed even louder than the mum.

Then he turned to his daughter and said, “to you, my daughter, I leave the football stadium at Bakau” (think the size of Baba Yara Sports stadium). Even more loud cries and tears. Then finally, to his lastborn son, he said, “and to you, Abdoulie, I leave the school complex in Fajara” (imagine a high school complex like Mfantsipim School), as the life ebbed out of him, and he slipped into the next life. Even louder screams and sobs!!!

A nurse standing by was intrigued and asked, “I know it’s sad to lose a loved one. But your father has left you all such wonderful properties; why so much weeping and wailing?” To which they replied, with deep sadness in their eyes: “He was a cleaner. The so-called properties he handed over to us are where he works, and he has just passed on the responsibility of cleaning those places to us!”. Seeing as these were the last words of their husband and father, this wife and kids were despondent, not only to lose their loved one but more for the fact that they felt obligated to carry out his last wishes—cleaning those vast properties he assigned to them!

We usually take the last words of a dying man very seriously, don’t we? Much like a will. Whether you like the contents of the will or not, you usually have to carry it out unless there’s reason to doubt that it was genuine. In Matthew 28:18-20 we’ve got the last words of our Lord before he ascended to heaven. He said,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

From the very start, Jesus’ first words to his disciples included a promise to make them disciples who make disciples:

“Follow me,” Jesus said, “And I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19).

And his last words to them included a command to carry on with the task he assigned to them from the very beginning, namely, to make disciples who make disciples. This is a command to every Christian who’s worth his salt. Yet, our attitude to this great commission—the final command of our Lord—can be likened to the response of the wife and three children to that man’s last wishes.

 

Rather than filling us with excitement, the mention of evangelism conjures feelings of dread in many Christians. For many of us, the command to “go and make disciples of all nations” was meant for specialist “evangelism committees”, a few evangelists and missionaries, and professional pastors and teachers. C. H. Spurgeon, in his usual pithy way, puts it like this:

The gospel command is, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” but it is so little obeyed that one would imagine that it ran thus, “Go into your own place of worship and preach the gospel to the few creatures who will come inside.” [1]

David Platt notes instructively:

Jesus has invited all of us to be a part of His plan. He has designed all of His people to know His joy as we share His love, spread His Word, and multiply His life among all of the peoples on the earth. This is the grand purpose for which we were created: to enjoy the grace of Christ as we spread the gospel of Christ from wherever we live to the ends of the earth. And this purpose is worth giving our lives to seeing it accomplished. It’s worth for millions of people who do not yet know the mercy and majesty of God in Christ. And it’s worth it for you and me, because we were made to be disciples who make disciples until the day when we see the face of the One we follow, and together with all nations we experience His satisfaction for all eternity.”  [2]

I think David Platt hits the nail on the head as to why so many of us neglect the command to go and make disciples of all nations; namely, because we have yet to grasp the big picture of God’s heart for the nations. So, in this three-part series of posts, we will attempt to explore God’s big picture for our world.

In Ephesians 1, from verses three through ten, we read:

“3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4. even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5. he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6. to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8. which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9. making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10. as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

This verse is part of a long, complex statement beginning in verse 3 and ending in the 14th verse. In this passage, Paul describes the grand scheme of God’s salvation as carried out in Christ — beginning from eternity past with the choosing or election of the Saints, to eternity to come, when God will once more head up or re-unite all things under the rulership of Christ. As the details unfold, we get to realise that the purpose of Christ’s redemptive work is to undo the effects of the fall of man.

After our first parents had disobeyed God and their eyes opened to their sin and shame, they run and hid from God’s presence, when he came by in the cool of the evening to fellowship with them as at other times. Thus, we see that the fall produced in man a dread of God’s presence and a sense of guilt.

By contrast, God’s elective grace towards the Christian justifies him (declares him guiltless) through faith in the cleansing blood of Christ. Restored to the right relationship with God, he can once more walk before God in love (without fear or guilt)—for perfect love casts out all fear (1 John4:18).

Further, God adopts the believer into His family, fully granting us the rights of a son—including giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is a seal of His ownership and a foretaste of the inheritance that awaits the believer in heaven. Paul’s explanation for all of these is,

“according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us, according to the riches of his grace.” (Ephesians 1:7b-8).

Notice in the Ephesians passage that few words or phrases occur repeatedly. One is the phrase “In Christ” or “through Christ.” Throughout the Bible, this is another way of describing Christians. A Christian is simply someone who is “in Christ” (see Romans 16). Also, notice the phrase “the purpose of his will” or “the mystery of his will”.

It is instructive to note that the first time we encountered the term, God’s ‘purpose’ or ‘will”, it was in connection with our adoption into God’s family. The second time we encounter the term, it is linked with God’s plan to reunite all things, by which we can deduce that God’s plan to reunite all things starts with adoption into His family. And the common theme in both places is the term “In Christ”. From this, we can say the following:

1. God’s big plan or picture is to reunite all things, both in heaven and on earth
2. His means of doing this is encapsulated in the phrase “in Christ”, and
3. His primary reason or endgame for all of this is adoption, i.e., to bring us all into one big family consisting of people from all nations and ethnicities and cultures, united by their shared love for Jesus and the fact that they are in Him and washed in His blood and filled with His Spirit.


If you have already placed your faith in Jesus for salvation, you have taken the first and vital step in aligning with God’s purpose to reunite all things. But as there are so many people out there who as yet don’t know Jesus, it behoves us who’ve been adopted into God’s family to make it our primary concern to see others come to salvation and be a part of God’s global reconciliation agenda.

In future posts, we will explore how God outworks his great purpose in and through us, culminating in reunifying the entire cosmos.  

Notes:

1C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students, Lecture 5: Open Air Preaching — Remarks Thereon; available from: http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/misc/lect5.htm. 
2.         David Platt, in Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples, by Francis Chan, pp. 8.

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Sufficiency for Every Good Work https://tgnghana.org/sufficiency-for-every-good-work/ https://tgnghana.org/sufficiency-for-every-good-work/#respond Mon, 02 Jan 2023 06:00:00 +0000 https://tgnghana.org/?p=5639 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 We live in a world of opportunity cost. There isn’t enough to go around, which means that for every need that is met, countless […]

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“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8

We live in a world of opportunity cost. There isn’t enough to go around, which means that for every need that is met, countless others have to give. I quite remember as a child, we didn’t have much as a family, which meant that every child had to make a very strong case for why a particular need had to be met first. The world itself operates on this same principle. Economists and Business leaders have made careers for themselves by teaching others how to prioritise and choose the best possible option from myriad opportunities. According to them, our ability to prioritise and choose the best option among thousands of opportunities will determine productivity and the best utilisation of resources. In many cases, opportunity cost has been the cause of much discontent and tensions among families and even nations, since it often ends up in a zero-sum outcome. 

But what if we had an endless limit of resources to accomplish every good intention each of us ever had? What if there was a bank that was always open and willing to supply all the resources ever needed for all the good works we each want to do? Well, according to Paul, there is such a bank. In his second letter to the Corinthians chapter 9:8, he exhorted them to be generous at all times, and his reason was that the God of the universe who created everything is able to make all grace abound to them, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, they may abound in every good work. According to Paul, there is no scarcity in God’s economy, which means we can always say yes to the needs of others. 

Wait a minute, is Paul saying we will have sufficiency in all things at all times? Is that even possible? Can there ever be a situation where we have all sufficiency, having all that we need at all times? This depends on if we define the word sufficiency right. Unfortunately, for most of us, sufficiency means a bank account filled with millions and millions of dollars or large investments stashed away in an offshore account for the future. It means a storehouse full of goods for many years to come. However, in the truest sense of the word, sufficiency is having what we need at the present time. It is instructive that in the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11, Jesus taught his disciples to pray to their Heavenly Father for their daily bread. Why would Jesus teach them to pray for their needs on a daily basis as opposed to for many years to come? This is because God has promised to provide for us on a daily basis. He is able to make all grace abound to us, so that we have all that we need for today. 

When we think of it that way, we would realise that most of us have more than we need today to be a blessing to others. To be honest, most of the worries and anxieties that keep us awake at night has nothing to do with our situations today. We are often more worried about tomorrow than we are today, which reveals a lot about our trust in God. Most of us will be quick to acknowledge that everything we have today is by the grace of God. Which begs the question, if we acknowledge it is God who has provided for us today, why are we so anxious about tomorrow? The God who has provided for you today is also able to provide tomorrow and not only for you, but so that you will abound in very good work. 

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul spoke briefly about the saints in Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8:2-4. Their attitude sums up how our own attitude should be with regard to helping meet the needs of other brothers and sisters Christ. According to Paul, “in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints.” What was it that inspired that level of sacrificial generosity on the part of the Macedonians, to the extent that they were begging Paul to receive their gift – and it wasn’t because they had a lot of leftover money or resources, the text says it was out of extreme poverty?

 It was because God had made all grace abound to them, and having all that they needed at the moment, they could abound in every good work. 

There have been many instances where I have heard some Christians refer to 2 Corinthians 9:8 as a basis for claiming that God will provide everything they want. But nothing can be further from the truth. The verse doesn’t say anything about wants. The promise we have from God is that he will provide sufficiently at all times. There is a great difference between sufficiency and wants. It is also worth noting in our text the reason God makes all grace abound to us. It is so that we may abound in every good work. The provision of God is not so that we can spend what we receive on our selfish insatiable desires, but for every good work. As Christians, we should always be thinking of how we can serve others with the resources God has generously given us. Because

we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which [He] God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

 

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